Best Doughnuts

Pharaoh's Donuts

Getting into Pharaoh's Donuts is about as difficult as solving the riddle of the sphinx — the humble downtown doughnut shop doesn't even have its own door. (It shares an entrance with a pain-management clinic.) Once inside, the space reveals a Tut's tomb treasure trove of fried dough. Owner Amon Aziz has been making doughnuts for the better part of two decades, selling them wholesale to gas stations and other shops out of his space on Seventh Street. In March he made the leap into retail by opening the shop as a storefront, and he's already giving his well-established competitors a run for their money. Over the course of not one, but two Riverfront Times blind taste tests, Aziz's classic glazed beauties handily beat out ten competitors with their rich, yeasty taste, structured-yet-poufy texture and simple sugary glaze. There's no de-Nile-ing it. Aziz is the king of doughnuts.